Android dual SIM handsets - recommendations and reviews - Page 4

reeder · 15-04-2014, 05:57

I have a dual sim Moto G 8GB that I'm really happy with.

I also purchased a Lumia 521 and am not impressed with the sim tray. It wouldn't matter for people who do not swap sims, but the sim contact prongs are not as gentle on sims as the Moto G. The sim tray "template" itself is also a has more than a mm's worth of tolerance so it can be tough to position sim well and it is also annoying to shove out the sim. I have to use a paperclip or pusher as the sim tray shield only allows access to ~1/3 of the sim. Moto g's sim slot is spring loaded. I think the Lumia 52x is a great phone for the (sale) price. I'm just not convinced it is built for frequent sim swap, especially if your sim cards are hard to replace.

UKSTEVE · 15-04-2014, 09:35

I think there are now dual SIM adapters for the Lumia series, although the ones I have seen are external and you cannot have both SIMs `live' at the same time - flipping between the two is as easy as switching to `flight mode' and back again though.

+Steve

Motel75 · 13-04-2014, 11:59

Slightly OT, but Nokia is readying a dual-SIM Windows Phone, the Lumia 630. This is an entry-level model, but (speaking as a WP user) I'd expect the experience to be quite a lot nicer than with cheap Android phones.

http://www.engadget.com/2014/04/02/n...-635-hands-on/

petkow · 14-04-2014, 00:55

Thanks so much to inquisitor and other others for your helpful reviews and suggestions! To be honest I was not considering the Cubot P9 as a serious day-to-day contender, but a workable rugged travel phone, useful for taking to the beach and if it got drowned or found itself in a bag with other toxic substances.. then it would not be the end of the world! Although you are right, its not a very happy future-proof phone in terms of spec. Motel75, that Lumia 630 looks quite interesting as does the Galaxy Grand 2 DuoS though a little more than I want to spend at this point.

Yes, indeed that brandy was worth a lot more than the phone that it poisoned. It was a gift (..the brandy that is). I had a connection via Manchester airport where normally you can happily stay air-side to transfer onto other domestic flights if you are travelling with only carry-on luggage... well of course unless you are flying Ryanair of-course!! So to cut a long story short, I had to go land-side, pass through security again, knowing that the bottle I had picked up at the previous airport would now have to be checked in. I unfortunately had no choice but to check in my carry-on luggage! And that was the end of my 5 year old Nokia E71...and a rather nice Brandy de Jerez Solera Gran Reserva.

Anyhow, back to its replacement I have decided to take my time and immerse myself into reading about the risky business of buying cheap Chinese handsets ordered directly from their country of origin. I am now also quite seriously looking at the iNew v3. Its sounding like one of the best mid-priced mid-spec phones out there despite only a 1850mAh battery which seems way too low! I can live without GLONASS support as my main handset does most things this would not. I am basically looking for a cheap secondary dual SIM handset for my Toggle SIM sitting with a local for the data access.

Thanks again for all the banter here! I will keep you guys posted whatever I buy and in the mean time if anyone has any further tips or tricks, keep sharing them!

andy · 14-04-2014, 17:17

I've had a Haier W718 for a few days.

This is pretty modest cost - mostly £65 on eBay UK (several sellers are abroad), or from about $90 direct from China. Looking now there aren't as many on eBay as a few weeks ago ...

It has 900 & 2100 MHz 3g, and IP67 dust and water protection. 500 MB & 4 GB memories. Android 4.2.2 on this one as supplied, i.e. with Google Play included etc (not on all of them)

I came to it after spotting the Lenovo S750 with IP67 but it doesn't have 900 MHz 3g, which it looks like European countries are shifting towards.

I haven't used it much yet, but it seems reasonable, with a proviso.

My home is a bit patchy for coverage on some networks. The 3g signal indication at 2100 MHz isn't as strong as say the Nokia 6120, more like the old 7600 was (all phones with Three SIMs), so it might lose 2100 signal a bit early in weaker areas. Maybe it's a cheap antenna issue like inquisitor mentioned above. The 2g signal indication looks better, so I'd guess 900 MHz 3g would be ok as well.

And maybe it won't be such an issue elsewhere compared to UK networks who do seem a bit mean on coverage. And of course most network SIMs have 2g and 3g, unlike a 3 UK SIM for which they've been reducing the 2g roaming.

I'm intending to do something like a local SIM for data abroad, with a UK one in the other. It's a bit of a luxury to some extent, as I could just take 2 Nokias, E51 and X6, and a 3g router, but Symbian has been dropped for most new applications nowadays, and I've never had the comprehensive version of Mobilevoip stable on the X6

Motel75 · 15-04-2014, 14:53

A bit OT again, but I discovered a major drawback of a quad-SIM phone when I lost my iPro FX3 and had to replace four SIMs from three countries. Multiple SIMs are convenient, but you really are "putting all your eggs in one basket."

inquisitor · 15-04-2014, 22:05

There's a French brand called Wiko which floods the market with dual SIM Android phones that are said to be of pretty good quality.

As an entry-level smartphone I like the Wiko Rainbow, which is currently sold for some € 150 at conrad.de (or from eBay.de).

CPU: Mediatek MT6582 Quadcore 1.3GHz
GPU: Mali 400
internal storage: 4GB
microSD slot: up to 32GB
RAM: 1GB
display: 5″, 1280x720px
networks: GSM 850/900/1800/1900, UMTS900/1900/2100
camera (front/back): 2MP / 8MP + LED flash
battery: 2000mAh (changeable)
dimensions: 146 x 74 x 9,3 mm
weight: 167g (inkl. Akku)
extras: dual SIM, USB OTG

No GLONASS or 5GHz wifi.

Rumour has it that Mediatek might release the source code of their chipset drivers into the public domain which would mean that Mediatek-powered phones such as Zopos and the Wiko Rainbow could receive an update to Android 4.4 (Kit Kat) in a few weeks to months.

However I just noticed some very interesting advantages of the Moto G dual SIM (XT1033) which perhaps justify the € 50 difference from the Wiko Rainbow:
+ GLONASS support
+ pentaband UMTS (850/900/1700/1900/2100 MHz)
+ Android 4.4 (Kit Kat)

GadgetKen · 03-05-2014, 14:55

T-Mobile near my home is only 2G and Edge and coverage is weak(nearest towers are shared AT&T and Verizon only). Near my office they have 3g and also patches of LTE. Using T-Mo for talk and text only so that's not important. LycaMobile will go in the 2g slot
AT&T is a strong 3G signal near my home and office so it wins one of the 3g slots in the new phone. And Telna will go in the micro sim 3g slot in the new phone because of some international roaming situations where I do have 3G or 3G is the only option available.
Thought of using Piranha but prefer Telna for inexpensive postpaid. Plus the Telna US rate is more reasonable.

GadgetKen · 03-05-2014, 20:02

Actually it's LTE plus 3G for AT&T near my home....which is why I have an AT&T mifi device and an H2O/AT&T sim chip.
T-Mobile is going to overlay about half of their US network with LTE by the end of 2014 and the remainder by the end of 2015.

Stu · 19-08-2015, 12:05

I going to give this a bump and ask what people have come up with in the last year. There is a great Lumia dual SIM with great LTE coverage on both SIMs. I hear One Plus 2 will be dual SIM. What else is out there? Unfortunately, I think it is getting risky relying on pure GSM for voice as some carriers are starting to turn off GSM. I can get buy with HSPA, but would prefer LTE.

	(#1)
reeder (Offline) Junior Member Newbie Posts: 9 Join Date: 08 Jan 2013 Country:	15-04-2014, 05:57 I have a dual sim Moto G 8GB that I'm really happy with. I also purchased a Lumia 521 and am not impressed with the sim tray. It wouldn't matter for people who do not swap sims, but the sim contact prongs are not as gentle on sims as the Moto G. The sim tray "template" itself is also a has more than a mm's worth of tolerance so it can be tough to position sim well and it is also annoying to shove out the sim. I have to use a paperclip or pusher as the sim tray shield only allows access to ~1/3 of the sim. Moto g's sim slot is spring loaded. I think the Lumia 52x is a great phone for the (sale) price. I'm just not convinced it is built for frequent sim swap, especially if your sim cards are hard to replace.

	(#2)
UKSTEVE (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Expert Posts: 197 Join Date: 26 Dec 2004 Location: Sheffield UK Country:	15-04-2014, 09:35 I think there are now dual SIM adapters for the Lumia series, although the ones I have seen are external and you cannot have both SIMs `live' at the same time - flipping between the two is as easy as switching to `flight mode' and back again though. +Steve [size=2]Steve Gold PO Box 1014, Sheffield S10 5YG, UK Home mobie: Telefonica O2 Other UK mobiles: 3, Vodafone, Virgin Foreign SIMs: Toggle (multi); Germany (Fonic); Poland (Orange PL); Skype: stevewgold

	(#3)
Motel75 (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Pioneer Posts: 573 Join Date: 15 Jun 2006 Location: Berlin Country:	13-04-2014, 11:59 Slightly OT, but Nokia is readying a dual-SIM Windows Phone, the Lumia 630. This is an entry-level model, but (speaking as a WP user) I'd expect the experience to be quite a lot nicer than with cheap Android phones. http://www.engadget.com/2014/04/02/n...-635-hands-on/ Current DE: Vodafone, Netzklub; PL: Klucz, Virgin; UK: Giffgaff, Vodafone; US: T-Mobile; CA: 7-Eleven; IT: Vodafone; UA: Kyivstar; FR: Bouygues; GR: Vodafone Former DE: Vodafone, T-Mobile, O2, Blauworld, 01051mobile, Solomo, Lycamobile, Simyo, Congstar, Fonic, Edeka Mobile, Lidl Mobile; PL: Heyah, Era, Virgin, Sami Swoi, Orange, POP, iPlus, Carrefour Mova, Telepin Mobi, Play, Lycamobile, T-Mobile; UK: Vodafone, T-Mobile, Virgin; US: T-Mobile, AT&T, Lycamobile; CZ: Vodafone, Oskar; ES: Lebara; GR: Vodafone, Wind; UA: Vodafone; IL: Orange; TR: Turkcell

	(#4)
petkow (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Pioneer Posts: 696 Join Date: 01 Aug 2006 Location: Madrid Country:	14-04-2014, 00:55 Thanks so much to inquisitor and other others for your helpful reviews and suggestions! To be honest I was not considering the Cubot P9 as a serious day-to-day contender, but a workable rugged travel phone, useful for taking to the beach and if it got drowned or found itself in a bag with other toxic substances.. then it would not be the end of the world! Although you are right, its not a very happy future-proof phone in terms of spec. Motel75, that Lumia 630 looks quite interesting as does the Galaxy Grand 2 DuoS though a little more than I want to spend at this point. Yes, indeed that brandy was worth a lot more than the phone that it poisoned. It was a gift (..the brandy that is). I had a connection via Manchester airport where normally you can happily stay air-side to transfer onto other domestic flights if you are travelling with only carry-on luggage... well of course unless you are flying Ryanair of-course!! So to cut a long story short, I had to go land-side, pass through security again, knowing that the bottle I had picked up at the previous airport would now have to be checked in. I unfortunately had no choice but to check in my carry-on luggage! And that was the end of my 5 year old Nokia E71...and a rather nice Brandy de Jerez Solera Gran Reserva. Anyhow, back to its replacement I have decided to take my time and immerse myself into reading about the risky business of buying cheap Chinese handsets ordered directly from their country of origin. I am now also quite seriously looking at the iNew v3. Its sounding like one of the best mid-priced mid-spec phones out there despite only a 1850mAh battery which seems way too low! I can live without GLONASS support as my main handset does most things this would not. I am basically looking for a cheap secondary dual SIM handset for my Toggle SIM sitting with a local for the data access. Thanks again for all the banter here! I will keep you guys posted whatever I buy and in the mean time if anyone has any further tips or tricks, keep sharing them! Last edited by petkow; 14-04-2014 at 01:11..

	(#5)
andy (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Prophet Posts: 2,128 Join Date: 10 Dec 2004 Country:	14-04-2014, 17:17 I've had a Haier W718 for a few days. This is pretty modest cost - mostly £65 on eBay UK (several sellers are abroad), or from about $90 direct from China. Looking now there aren't as many on eBay as a few weeks ago ... It has 900 & 2100 MHz 3g, and IP67 dust and water protection. 500 MB & 4 GB memories. Android 4.2.2 on this one as supplied, i.e. with Google Play included etc (not on all of them) I came to it after spotting the Lenovo S750 with IP67 but it doesn't have 900 MHz 3g, which it looks like European countries are shifting towards. I haven't used it much yet, but it seems reasonable, with a proviso. My home is a bit patchy for coverage on some networks. The 3g signal indication at 2100 MHz isn't as strong as say the Nokia 6120, more like the old 7600 was (all phones with Three SIMs), so it might lose 2100 signal a bit early in weaker areas. Maybe it's a cheap antenna issue like inquisitor mentioned above. The 2g signal indication looks better, so I'd guess 900 MHz 3g would be ok as well. And maybe it won't be such an issue elsewhere compared to UK networks who do seem a bit mean on coverage. And of course most network SIMs have 2g and 3g, unlike a 3 UK SIM for which they've been reducing the 2g roaming. I'm intending to do something like a local SIM for data abroad, with a UK one in the other. It's a bit of a luxury to some extent, as I could just take 2 Nokias, E51 and X6, and a 3g router, but Symbian has been dropped for most new applications nowadays, and I've never had the comprehensive version of Mobilevoip stable on the X6 Last edited by andy; 14-04-2014 at 20:46..

	(#6)
Motel75 (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Pioneer Posts: 573 Join Date: 15 Jun 2006 Location: Berlin Country:	15-04-2014, 14:53 A bit OT again, but I discovered a major drawback of a quad-SIM phone when I lost my iPro FX3 and had to replace four SIMs from three countries. Multiple SIMs are convenient, but you really are "putting all your eggs in one basket." Current DE: Vodafone, Netzklub; PL: Klucz, Virgin; UK: Giffgaff, Vodafone; US: T-Mobile; CA: 7-Eleven; IT: Vodafone; UA: Kyivstar; FR: Bouygues; GR: Vodafone Former DE: Vodafone, T-Mobile, O2, Blauworld, 01051mobile, Solomo, Lycamobile, Simyo, Congstar, Fonic, Edeka Mobile, Lidl Mobile; PL: Heyah, Era, Virgin, Sami Swoi, Orange, POP, iPlus, Carrefour Mova, Telepin Mobi, Play, Lycamobile, T-Mobile; UK: Vodafone, T-Mobile, Virgin; US: T-Mobile, AT&T, Lycamobile; CZ: Vodafone, Oskar; ES: Lebara; GR: Vodafone, Wind; UA: Vodafone; IL: Orange; TR: Turkcell

	(#7)
inquisitor (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Professionist Posts: 1,399 Join Date: 15 Nov 2006 Country:	15-04-2014, 22:05 There's a French brand called Wiko which floods the market with dual SIM Android phones that are said to be of pretty good quality. As an entry-level smartphone I like the Wiko Rainbow, which is currently sold for some € 150 at conrad.de (or from eBay.de). CPU: Mediatek MT6582 Quadcore 1.3GHz GPU: Mali 400 internal storage: 4GB microSD slot: up to 32GB RAM: 1GB display: 5″, 1280x720px networks: GSM 850/900/1800/1900, UMTS900/1900/2100 camera (front/back): 2MP / 8MP + LED flash battery: 2000mAh (changeable) dimensions: 146 x 74 x 9,3 mm weight: 167g (inkl. Akku) extras: dual SIM, USB OTG No GLONASS or 5GHz wifi. Rumour has it that Mediatek might release the source code of their chipset drivers into the public domain which would mean that Mediatek-powered phones such as Zopos and the Wiko Rainbow could receive an update to Android 4.4 (Kit Kat) in a few weeks to months. However I just noticed some very interesting advantages of the Moto G dual SIM (XT1033) which perhaps justify the € 50 difference from the Wiko Rainbow: + GLONASS support + pentaband UMTS (850/900/1700/1900/2100 MHz) + Android 4.4 (Kit Kat) terminals: Samsung: Galaxy S5 DuoS (G900FD); BLU: Win HD LTE; Nokia: 1200; Asus: Fonepad 7 ME372CG; Huawei data: E3372, Vodafone R201, K3765, E1762; postpaid: O2 on Business XL; prepaid: DE: Aldi Talk, Lidl; UK: 3; BG: MTel, vivacom; RU: MTS; RS: MTS; UAE: du Tourist SIM; INT'L: toggle mobile VoIP: sipgate.de (German DID); sipgate.co.uk (British DID); ukddi.com (British DID); sipcall.ch (Swiss DID); megafon.bg (Bulgarian DID); InterVoip.com

	(#8)
GadgetKen (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Expert Posts: 342 Join Date: 14 Dec 2004 Location: Connecticut, USA Country:	03-05-2014, 14:55 T-Mobile near my home is only 2G and Edge and coverage is weak(nearest towers are shared AT&T and Verizon only). Near my office they have 3g and also patches of LTE. Using T-Mo for talk and text only so that's not important. LycaMobile will go in the 2g slot AT&T is a strong 3G signal near my home and office so it wins one of the 3g slots in the new phone. And Telna will go in the micro sim 3g slot in the new phone because of some international roaming situations where I do have 3G or 3G is the only option available. Thought of using Piranha but prefer Telna for inexpensive postpaid. Plus the Telna US rate is more reasonable. Phones/Wireless Devices: Doogee S90, Isatphone Pro, Amazon Kindle 3G, SkyRoam MiFi device, Karma MiFi device, AT&T Liberate MiFi device Sim Cards: T-Mobile (Mint), AT&T (Mifi device or Kindle), Koko Satphone: InMarSat Broadband US Wireless Data: AT&T postpaid, Sprint (Karma Mobility prepaid) Broadband International Data: SkyRoam VOIP: Skype

	(#9)
GadgetKen (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Expert Posts: 342 Join Date: 14 Dec 2004 Location: Connecticut, USA Country:	03-05-2014, 20:02 Actually it's LTE plus 3G for AT&T near my home....which is why I have an AT&T mifi device and an H2O/AT&T sim chip. T-Mobile is going to overlay about half of their US network with LTE by the end of 2014 and the remainder by the end of 2015. Phones/Wireless Devices: Doogee S90, Isatphone Pro, Amazon Kindle 3G, SkyRoam MiFi device, Karma MiFi device, AT&T Liberate MiFi device Sim Cards: T-Mobile (Mint), AT&T (Mifi device or Kindle), Koko Satphone: InMarSat Broadband US Wireless Data: AT&T postpaid, Sprint (Karma Mobility prepaid) Broadband International Data: SkyRoam VOIP: Skype

	(#10)
Stu (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Guru Posts: 1,091 Join Date: 11 Feb 2004 Location: Detroit (formerly Dubai) Country:	19-08-2015, 12:05 I going to give this a bump and ask what people have come up with in the last year. There is a great Lumia dual SIM with great LTE coverage on both SIMs. I hear One Plus 2 will be dual SIM. What else is out there? Unfortunately, I think it is getting risky relying on pure GSM for voice as some carriers are starting to turn off GSM. I can get buy with HSPA, but would prefer LTE.